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The drug arrest story comes after Brahim's ex-wife Niama, 36, described her former husband as an unemployed but trained electrician who spent his days smoking marijuana and listening to Arabic rap music.

From her home in the Brusells subirb of Moleenbeek, which has been the site of anti-terror roads, she said Abdeslam's favourite activities were "smoking weed and sleeping".

"He often slept during the day. The number of joints that he smoked was alarming," she said.

She added that her former husband never went to the mosque or prayed but observed Ramadan because his family forced him to.

After gunning down people at bars and cafes in Paris' 10th and 11th arrondissements, allegedly alongside his brother Salah, Brahim Abdeslam blew himself up outside a bar on Boulevard Voltaire, seriously wounding one person.

Salah Abdeslam is believed to have fled after the shooting massacre.

Mohamed Abdeslam, who was himself briefly detained in Belgium after the string of coordinated attacks in Paris left 129 people dead, on Tuesday advised his brother Salah to turn himself in.

"The best thing would be for him to surrender so that the legal system can shed full light on the case. I remind you that Salah has never been able to tell his side of the story to the police and that he is therefore presumed innocent."

Salah Abdeslam, a 26 year-old Belgian-born French national, is suspected of involvement in the Paris attacks and a manhunt is underway.

French police raided addresses north of Paris early Wednesday.

That operation targeted the suspected mastermind of Friday's deadly attacks in the French capital, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, an Islamic State fighter who was previously thought to be in Syria after fleeing raids in his native Belgium earlier this year.

The purchase and consumption of up to five grams of cannabis is tolerated in coffee shops in the Netherlands.

Millions of French, Belgians and others head there each year but some buy larger quantities which leave them subject to arrest.